Tidal Speakers owners

hmm. Mine did not have the amazing wow factor after only 40-50 hours. Sounded kind of mediocre to tell you the truth. At the time I was using an Audio Research REF 5 pre and a Sim Audio W-7. I was very disappointed with the sound. The thing is, Jorn said I didn't need to pay crazy attention to the chain to make the Classic sound good. I as mentioned before, paying attention to the chain and changing everything is exactly what I had to do to tap into their potential. Maybe the Cera is just that much better than the Classic. I wonder if I should have ignored his advice gone with the Cera in the first place?

Kclone,

I guess you heard a big improvement when you replaced your Audio Research preamp? Both preamplifiers that we heard are superior to the Audio Research ref...

Kclone unfortunately I cannot tell you something more than what Jorn told you. I have heard that it depends on the type of music you are listening the quality of the recordings. For example if you listen to Rock, Metal etc where the recordings are not so good you should go for the normal Piano, if you listen to other genres where quality of recordings is better then the Cera would be a better choice!

But dont try to compare auditions, what sounds awesome to me maybe be mediocre to you, you know words cannot really express what we listen to we dont have a common ground in describing sound except if we listen to the same thing the same time!

To tell you the truth I am not a big fun of Audio Research preamps It could contribute to the not so good sound you describe!

Happy Listening,

Mike

For clarification, now mine sounds absolutely awesome. But, I had to change everything. The Herron preamp was a major improvement over the REF 5 for sure. Yes, I do listen to rock, but I hate most heavy metal. All I was saying is my experience seems different from everyone else. It seems everyone else had an amazing experience from the the time they plopped them down. I didn't, I had to put some work into to it. In the end, it was well worth it, a lot of fun and I am very happy now. I don't see myself worrying about speakers for years.

Kclone, when I first heard Tidals at the '09 RMAF, they were absolutely green and were not impressive. On day 2 they were much better but still not something I would spend that much money on. But Sunday, Sunday, Sunday! Wow!

My personal experiences also largely reflect this. They grew better and better on a daily basis for at least the first two weeks. I had to play with how far they were from the speaker wall and with toe-in. Until I had they crossing just behind me, I did not have the optimal sound stage.

I am now approaching 500 hours and still hear improvements, typically in the bass.

I have yet to play much with the electronics. It now looks like I will have to await the RMAF to hear them with Tidal electronics, which I cannot afford.